Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-09-12
INFLUENCING MORALS.
RRLATION OF PHYSICAL WELL.
BEING TO MORAL CONDUCT
AS Anciently Regarded, auc Their
Present Relation ia Reform
atory Processes.

protected for specified time He is a hu.
man being whose fall is due to outside in.
haences working on unrestrained inward
tendencies, for which birth and environ
nents are responsible. The intelligent
outside world recognizes how impossible It
Is for such inheritances, such natures, 70
produce a different factor In the social
economy. How, even at this late date.
shall the work of reformation be begun
Confinement for given period, without
the attempt at regeneration, means an in
creased power for evil let loose upon the
community. That man or woman should
be returned again and again to prison
Is blot on our civilization which
honest, intelligent citizens demand mus. be
removed. How ? is the tremendous cues
ton. BY implanting in them seed which
shall root out the evil tendency. BY edu-
cation that will remove the excuse for
crime; ignorance Of head and hands has
put many men behind prison bars. Teach
both TO work IN harmony, and implant q
knowledge OF the necessity and beauty of
obedience TO law, and the way has been
opened, path cut that viii let in the
heavenly light of a new life in nearer har-
, mony with the good of all If every child
were cIean, If every child were taught
obedience and selfcontrol, if it were taught
the interdependence of every human life,
how the happiness Of the race depends on
the character Of its individuals, a new day
would dawn on the body polite, and prison
houses become moral hospitals, where dis
eased patients are treated till cured, or
confined till liberated by death.
When diseased natures inhabi. diseased
bodies, both fed by an environment that of
itself breeds both moral and physical con-
tagion, what can be produced but that
which is evil and works evil?
If child is born blind, OF lame, or dis
eased in body, there are institutions to
which it may be sent, and the special
treatment necessary for its cure, or at least
an alienation of its aeformity, is begun.
But a child in whom there must be the
seeds OF moral disease, to the point that it
distributes its evil nature as the wind the
seed of the thistle, is allowed free range
till the natural fruition eliminates in
crime. Then law shuts it within the
prison. while the influence OF evil set in
motion during its years Of liberty are bear
ing fruit an hundredfold.
Begin with the child whose unrighteous
tendencies need the uprooting hand OF
wisdom and Judgment Let the training of
the children of criminals be such as will
counteract the evil inherent IN them.
Train the muscles to obey the will, and
the will to recognize law. The Popular
Sce'sce Monthly In a recent article, speaks
Of fl,.Nx ol,,,N y -, Il Il
moral nature. Happily, the value of
physical training for the production of
sound bodies. and the value of sound bod
les for the indwelling OF sound minds, is
at last an acknowledged fact but TO recog-
niDe the value of physical training because
of its effect on moral nature Is view to
which the world is only now awakening
"The idea that body and mind work
together, and that it cannot be well with
the one if it is i'll with the other, was a
commonplace among the ancient Greeks
but for ages the truth was lost sight OF, and
WAS indeed rupplanted by the antagonist
error that If We would cult Vate and de
velop the soul we must Cypress and dis
honor the body. We are now working
back 20 the Greek point Of view; and,
with the exact methods Of modern science
to aid Us, may be expected TO turn what
ever Of truth it contains to better use
than they did The Greeks held, en-
pirscslly, that rhythm of sound and rhythm
Of particularly simple rhythms
free from all 6rdcsra-had regularizing
effect upon the thoughts and a moderating
effect upon the passions. Now, this is pre-
ciselywha the average criminal nature most
needs The criminal is essentially man
who does not naturally act in unison with
his fellow men-he is prone to strike dis
cOrdant notas - that lis, TO perform
irregular and lawless actions- This dispo-
sition is probably due in part to distrust
of himself, arising from a secret conscious
ness OF deficiency. To such man a well
directed course OF bodily exercise means,
in the first place, the development of his
physical organs and faculties; in the
second place, q certain sense Of power re-
sulting therefrom thirdly, heightened
self-respect and self-con6dence iourthly,
a sense of the value of method; filthy, a
more regular flow of thought to more def
mite objects; and, sixthly, certain devel-
opement OF the social instinct arising from
q generally improved bodily and intellect
ual condition.
1t may be accepted as general prin-
ciple that when given result proves very
difficult, if not impossible, of attainment
we are trying to take too bag a step to get
at it-that is, we are overlooking some in
termediate stage or stages that have to be
passed through before We can get at our
objective point 1t is as if we wanted TO
get upstairs all az once, instead Of proceed
ing step by step. Well, in regard 70 Grim
H., ,,ro,ohal ct he
effort to reach their spiritual nature; we
have set the schooimaster on them in the
effort to arouse their dormant intellectual
faculties; now, Al length, after abundant
evidence as to how little either chaplain
or schoolmaster can effect, We are trying
what the drill-master can do 70 mend their
crooked bodies, to reform their sham
bling gait, to fix the vacant or wandering
eye, to infuse life, vigor and snap
into spiritless frames and at last It
seems "a if we were on the right
track. After all, what did St Paul tell us
long ago? First that which is natural
(physicall, then that which is spiritual
Wen, without needing him any more than
the ancient Greeks, who, In this matter at
least, were so wise, we have in the main
been working, or trying to work, on the
spiritual, leaving the natural 20 shift for
itself, even when its defects have been
most conspicuous, and when, owing to
these defects, the spiritual has been aImos,
non-existent. It is time to go back on our
tracks and 70 see that we make things IS
right as we can in the natural region be-
fore we look for intellectual results or the
peaoeable fruits Of righteousness. We
seem already to see Science, the deepiseG
Cinderella, as Huxley says, scoring another
triumph, and showing that, even for mora
reform, its methods are worth more tina,
all other modes Of activity put together
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He Knew 1t Would Rain.
spent the Fourth of July" said Ser
seant McComb. "in a mari Of nlinoi